Description: "P.S. insights, interviews & more ..."--Page 4 of cover.
Brief description:
Elizabeth Crane is the author of the novel We Only Know So Much and three collections of short stories. Her stories have been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts. She is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award, and her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. A feature film adaptation of We Only Know So Much will be released in 2016.
Review Quotes:
Praise for We Only Know So Much: "The Copelands would feel right at home in a Noah Baumbach movie. . . . Our narrator is an omniscient 'We' who reports the goings-on of the family with the breathless glee of an incurable gossip." - Entertainment Weekly
"Not since The Royal Tenenbaums have I loved a family so much. The Copelands of We Only Know So Much are wonderfully eccentric, hilariously not self-aware and strangely adorable. They seemed so real, I felt like I was reading my own family story." - Jessica Anya Blau, author of The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and Drinking Closer to Home
"This is the kind of book that inspires a person to see the beauty in the ordinary, to stop concentrating on others' failings long enough to see their spark and maybe rediscover his or her own." - Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue
"A unique and dizzying tale that delves into the emotional life of a family teetering on the brink of everything. . . . The beauty in Crane's novel is her sweep from acid commentary to heartfelt portrayal of real-life loves and losses." - Kirkus Reviews
"This is an irresistible and winsome read. A truly astute tale of love neglected and reclaimed, family resiliency, spiritual inquiries, and personal metamorphoses." - Booklist (starred review)
"I've long been an admirer of Elizabeth Crane's absolutely unique voice-no one else working in contemporary American letters sounds quite like her. So to say that The History of Great Things astonished me is saying a lot. Co-written, in a sense, by a daughter and her absent mother (who speaks from beyond the grave), this is an important work, fearless in both structure and vision, with Crane's razor-edge fusion of intelligence, humor, and emotion informing every chapter. Get ready, world: this one's going to be huge." - Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More
"Poignant and hilarious...Crane writes about the relationship between a deceased mother and her daughter as they tell each other's stories to understand each other." - Michele Filgate, Los Angeles Times
"Elizabeth Crane has written a novel that is both unprecedented and fantastic (a word I mean in every sense). Without question, the unconventional narrative is compelling in a can't-stop-reading kind of way. But there's more to this book than a keen story cleverly told. Her every page thrums with wisdom, buzzes with truth. What did I learn after reading The History of Great Things? I learned that love survives death. And that no one ever really goes away, even if they have. And that all sides have many stories. And that we make our own happiness. This is unlike any novel I've ever encountered and it's absolutely wonderful." - Jill Alexander Essbaum, author of Hausfrau
"Ultimately, The History of Great Things is a story of perception, one well worth reading. It serves as a reminder that what truly matters to each of us is not what actually happens, but how we remember it." - The Rumpus.com
"Cowritten, in a sense, by a daughter and her absent mother (who speaks from beyond the grave), this is an important work, fearless in both structure and vision, with Crane's razor-edge fusion of intelligence, humor, and emotion informing every chapter. Get ready, world: this one's going to be huge." - Jamie Quatro, author of I Want to Show You More
"I cannot remember the last time I simultaneously cried and laughed as hard as I did while reading Elizabeth Crane's glorious, tender knockout of a novel, The History of Great Things. Wait, yes I can. It was the last time I spoke to my mom about life." - Amber Tamblyn, author of Dark Sparkler
"Like everything Elizabeth Crane writes, The History of Great Things is wonderful fun to read-smart, insightful, and witty-but it will break your heart, too. It stares down the poignant question so many daughters want to ask: How well did my mother really know me?" - Pamela Erens, author of Eleven Hours and The Virgins
"The novel flows smoothly, and readers game for offbeat narrative approaches will be well rewarded. . . . So much like the relationship they're borne of, Crane's deeply realized mother-daughter inventions are therapeutic and ruthless, heartfelt and crushing. A lovely exercise in the wild, soothing wonders of imagination." - Booklist (starred review)
"Imagine sitting at a leisurely dinner with two intelligent women, a mother and daughter....The format may be experimental, but the emotions the book will stir in readers are moving and heartbreakingly familiar." - Library Journal
"Elizabeth Crane's latest novel, The History of Great Things, is a poignant dual narrative featuring a mother and daughter whose disparate paths ultimately prevent them from ever truly understanding each other. . . . Alternating between laugh-out-loud humor and heart-rending melancholy, Crane gives us a mother and daughter who never quite grasp each other's life stories, but who find truth through unconditional love." - Bookpage